Three hairy spiders, two scary scorpions and a squirrel in a tree

Meet Harold. He's part of the reason I love living out here in the "country." We're surrounded by green grass, loads of trees and bunches of animal life. Go Nature! The main thing I miss about living in California is getting out in nature. I enjoyed going hiking there and of course I lOVED going out on the boat to see what we could find. Now, there are a lot of beautiful things to see right here in Texas. It's just that it is way too hot to go out and see them. Oh, well. Now I can see them from the comfort of my air conditioned kitchen.

For some reason we just have the one squirrel. I don't know if he's a nerd and the other squirrels don't want to play with him or if he's like the Godfather of squirrels and the other squirrels are afraid of him or what. One thing is certain about Harold though. He can climb. Every morning he goes jumping from tree to tree outside. Then we hear a big thunk and look up to see Harold climbing the outside walls of the house to get up on the roof. I really think he should join Cirque de Solei or something.

Here's my favorite. We have several deer that come to graze on the grass in the early mornings. So beautiful. Plus, they don't run away immediately when Brady tries to play with them. Yes, I said play with, not chase them away. I believe he thinks they are really big dogs.













The only bad thing about the nature part of living in the "country"? Spiders. The other night as Mike and I were giving Emma her bath, I looked down to see just the biggest, hairiest spider EVER running across the kitchen floor. I would have taken his picture but with all of the screaming and running away going on I couldn't grab the camera. Once I calmed Mike down I told him that spider had to die. Usually, I'm all about the relocation program when it comes to outside things being inside. So please don't go getting all PETA on me. I just couldn't take a chance on this thing getting back in the house if we just captured him and put him outside. I'm confident that even if we had driven him miles away to a different locale that he would have found his way back here and sauntered into our air conditioned home on his eight hairy, long legs. And I just couldn't have that happen. I knew I had made the right decision when Mike informed me that said spider actually made a crunching sound when he killed it. People. Spiders don't have bones. They should not crunch when you squash them. Hey, nature? Please stay outside where you belong from now on. I love looking at you through my windows and I'm not afraid to take you out if you come inside.